Computer systems and related technologies have become a staple in all aspects of modern society. Thus, people have come to rely on these systems as a tool for both personal and professional needs, wherein many systems process and store vast amounts of data, files and other information on a daily basis. For example, it is not uncommon for a single user to access, generate and/or save a plurality of text files, spread sheet files, presentation files, Internet files, and E-mail files, to name but a few examples, each day. Since computers have become tools of necessity for processing these ever growing amounts of data and files, users have increasingly become burdened with managing larger quantities of such information. These burdens and associated inefficiencies generally increase as the amount of data and files increase on the computer system. For example, files are often stored on a computer in a vertical and horizontal tree structure, wherein files stored at the same directory level maintain a horizontal relationship with each other and files stored in lower subdirectories maintain a vertical relationship with those directories and subdirectories higher up in the tree. Unfortunately, as computer systems have evolved, and as more data is stored on each system causing these tree structures to grow, conventional file access and management systems require users to spend more and more time navigating throughout these structures when accessing, saving and/or browsing files. This becomes expensive since users are spending greater amounts of time navigating and searching for desired file destinations as opposed to actually operating on the files.
One example of time inefficiency associated with conventional file management systems relates to saving files. Often times, as users are operating upon files, the need arises to save files in another directory. When presented with options and/or locations for saving such files, the user many times has to search and navigate through a complex tree of directories and files to find the location wherein the files are ultimately saved. For example, when saving an opened file in another directory than the current file directory, the user must often navigate up or down to another subdirectory (e.g., mouse stroke clicking on alternate directory nodes), and then peruse an exhaustive list of related directories and subdirectories at various levels before finding a desired directory to store the file. Moreover, the user often has to scan large lists of files on the way to a destination directory thereby increasing the time of finding the desired directory. As is usually the case, the user can expend significant amounts of time merely traversing the directory tree structures searching for the desired directory or subdirectory to store the file. When operating upon many such files every day, these time inefficiencies are multiplied and can become quite costly. Another common scenario of time inefficiency relates to E-mail systems and processing. As an example, files are often attached or appended to an E-mail wherein the E-mail recipient often desires to detach the file and save/place the file in a directory or subdirectory. This usually involves searching and “drilling down” through many unrelated directories in a somewhat linear manner before finding the desired directory to save the associated file.
File navigation and searching problems also relate to other aspects of conventional file management systems. For example, users often desire to open/read a related file when operating upon another file. This may occur when a first file (e.g., text, spreadsheet file) is currently opened and a second file needs to be opened for review and/or for retrieving portions of the second file for utilization in the first file. As is the case with finding a suitable location for saving a file, opening a desired file presents similar navigation and searching problems. Often extensive searches are conducted in the directory tree structure to find the desired file to open. In a similar context, merely browsing a tree structure for a desired file to initially open and/or retrieve, can require tedious searching through a list of unlikely directories and subdirectories before finding the file of interest.
In view of the above problems associated with conventional file management and access systems, there is a need for a system and/or methodology to mitigate navigation costs associated with traversing directory tree structures to facilitate improved efficiency file access, save and browsing operations.